Page 39 of A Warrior's Heart

Lorcan lay on one side of me, and the fire was on the other. I peered over at Malik. He stood under the moon, a hand on the dagger at his side as he faced the mountain. He had insisted on keeping watch.

“Lor?” I nestled closer to him. “Are you awake?”

“Yes.” He opened his eyes. Alek’s arm was around him, and their fingers were linked.

“Do you think I could ever be happy like you are with Alek?” I asked, feeling a tightness in my throat.

Lorcan played with my hair like he used to do when we were boys. “I do.”

“Even if I’m… broken?”

“You’re not broken,” Lorcan said, his fingers stilling in my hair. “Do not ever say that again.”

The backs of my eyes stung with tears, but I held them back. “I want to be with Malik.”

A sad smile touched Lorcan’s lips. “I know.”

“But I’m not sure I can.”

“Do not dwell on it now.” Lorcan’s lids fell closed. He forced them back open, fighting sleep. The hand in my hair slowed as he shut his eyes again.

“Sleep,” I said before kissing his cheek and turning over to face the fire.

Malik looked over at me, his orange eyes glowing in the dark. My lids, too, grew heavy and I closed my eyes, comforted in the knowledge that he was watching over me.

Chapter Nine

Malik

After years of denying my desire for Troy, I had finally accepted that I craved him. As a companion… as a lover. However, the urge to protect him was stronger than my selfish desires.

When he flinched away from me the night before, it felt like a searing hot blade had been jammed into my chest. I would rather slit my own throat than ever see him do so again.

“You’re quiet,” Shar said as we hiked up the mountain the next morning. “Care to share what’s on your mind?”

I peered at him from the corner of my eye and kept walking.

“I know I’m only an assassin, yet evenIknow proper manners when someone speaks to me.”

“Why must you be a pest?” I asked with a growl, one derived from a sleepless night and a wandering mind.

“A pest?” Shar blinked. “I’ve been called many things in my life but never that.” He kept pace beside me… much to my dismay. “You and the young archer are quarreling?”

“No.”

“I sensed tension between you two last night when you returned from the stream.”

“It is no business of yours, assassin.”

“You taught him well, you know,” Shar said, relentless in his pursuit of conversation. “Troy is a skilled archer.”

I glanced back at Troy. He walked beside Lorcan, smiling as he pointed to the birds flying overhead. His kind heart never failed to send mine racing in response.

“I taught him the basics, and he perfected them. That is his doing, not mine.”

“You don’t like me, do you?” Shar asked with an amused tilt to his voice.

“I liked you much better when you didn’t speak.”